So, was Cairns Senator McLucas sacked over travel allowance?
She has resigned as Parliamentary Secretary, and says it's nothing to do with rort scandal – which usually means it has everything to do with rort scandal:
- Today's reshuffle, announced today by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd...
Senator Jan McLucas, the former Parliamentary Secretary for health and Ageing has been forced to step down after revelations by the Sunday Telgraph that she was living in Canberra and claiming travel allowance while claiming her home base as Cairns.
Senator McLucas was under formal investigation by the Department of Finance. By stepping down she’s allowed Mr Rudd to clear the decks after the forced resignation of Mr Fitzgibbon on Thursday over conflict of interest charges.
15 comments:
IMO, it's a national tragedy that Rudd has left the bumbling, lightweight, incoherent fool of a man Stephen Conroy in charge of Telcommunications.
I say that not only because of the government's noxious plan to introduce Internet censorship, of which Conroy has been the inffectual public face. In some ways, it's better to have an incompetent in charge of that scheme. Makes it less likely to happen.
The problem is that Australia needs someone smart to organize the broadband rollout.
KRudd is being pushed into clearing out the moderates, and installing "left faction" union thugs and communists.
The logical conclusion to this move left will be KRudd's replacement by Julia Gillard. I expect this late this year.
Logic.
Since when has politics in the country been logical?
It is just as likely that Krudd replaces Peter Garret as lead singer in The Oils. Oh and Lenin is brought back to life in North Korea and makes a move for the White House.. Get Ukalale and learn to play US Forces so we can put Cairns on the map as the center for political Logic.
Strewth.
I notice Wikipedia has already been updated to give profuse coverage to the alleged allowanmce rorts affair, as though this is the most significant thing in Jan McLucas' life. It almost looks like Glen Milne has updated it himself. And of course, Milne's article in today's Sunday Mail reads like he's claiming a scalp.
At a distance it's hard to know whast's going on, but I get the impression Jan McLucas was targeted by NewsCorp. It would be interesting to know why.
With any luck, free from her ministerial contraints, we'll have an outspoken progressive Labour Senator with a particular interest in FNQ from now on. Time will tell.
"With any luck, free from her ministerial contraints, we'll have an outspoken progressive Labour Senator with a particular interest in FNQ from now on. Time will tell"
syd syd syd this is what you should have expected ,demanded ,insisted when lukewarm lucas was supposedely constrained The party.
The whole"fnq" accept what southerners don,t it is about time when these wackers we elected spruik the party crap ,we protest that we elected them not the bloody party .let us revolt !
Gee Syd, you support the useless ALP Senator McLucas irrespective of performance - what a surprise! Without a skerric of evidence you go on to blame the Murdoch press for "targeting" her - a double surprise!!
Jan McLucas has had more than a decade in the Senate to achieve something (anything) on behalf of her constituents - and she hasn't. Dead wood would look terrific in comparison.
Mate, I think you ought to contact the Israeli embassy as soon as possible and have them check the micro-chip they implanted into your brain stem. It's malfunctioning badly.
Hell bryan this scares me I agree whole heartedly
For God's sake Bryan. First you 'call me out' a week ago with a long torrent of invective directed against my opinions. Then, after I put some effort into replying in detail, you make zero response. After a few days, I start to worry you might not be feeling OK. Then thwack, you're back with a whole bunch of quite angry sneering at what I said on a completely different topic - along with the by now predictable shallow misrepresentation of views you apparently can't or won't debate directly.
I am, at any rate, glad you're still alive and kicking.
I really don't know what Jan McLucas has been up to in Parliament. I know little about ehre. I met her briefly years ago and thought she seemed a nice and decent person. if you tell me she's been ineffective 'dead wood', it may be that you're right. Perhaps one of her supporters could speak up if they think otherwise? I'm not her apologist. All I did was express the hope she may play a useful role as a more indpendent senator with an FNQ interest. An inoffensive wish, I would have thought. Sorry I upset you.
On the question of politicians being targeted selectively - and whether the Murdoch media, from time to time, plays this game - I think you'd have to have had your eyes shut wide to say it never happens.
Did it happen to McLucas in this case? I don't know. What I do know is that the story Glen Milne cobbled together which started the ball rolling was extraordinarily ho-hum. There was no substance to his spin; it was a beat-up even by his dismal standards.
The Murdoch media ran similar stories of "greedy pollies" in the UK recently, just in time for the Local Government elections.
It's true Syd, I've chosen you to make an example of, and you've admitted above that I'm right to do so.
What I object to is the extent of your claimed ignorance around politics, and your parallel, automatic, and unfounded assumption that the ALP is somehow superior to the LNP - along with the piffle you publish about the Queensland Greens, which you seem to have got from Hans Christian Andersen.
You say "I really don't know what Jan McLucas has been up to in Parliament". Then you opine that she can mysteriously become a force for good if only the evil ogre Murdoch would play fair. Piffle.
McLucas was a keen supporter of Mr Murdoch when it came to invading Iraq. As was Kevin Rudd. Senator McLucas publicly attacked Peace by Peace at the instruction of Mr Rudd in 2003. She called us "misguided and misinformed" - even though everything we said came true, and everything she said turned out to be a lie.
Now you're defending the ALP and the Greens despicable behaviour around Wild Rivers and World Heritage, and their abysmal failure to consult effectively with Aboriginal people.
Express your opinions by all means, but please back them up with facts. Whenever you give us a kneejerk "Labor must be better than the LNP because I'm an old anti-semite" line - well Syd, I'm going to call you on it. Easy to understand. Easy to avoid.
Just put a fact or two in every post will do the trick.
Bryan. Your parodies of my views are becoming sillier and sillier.
I had no contact with McLucas during the time of the Iraq invasion. If she supported it, shame on her, IMO. Unfortunately, shame on virtually ALL the ALP, Libs, Nats (and even quite a few Greens at the time, I suspect). I'd like to think a lot of these folk have got a better education since. Perhaps that's overly-optimistic, but optimism isn't a crime (yet), is it?
Bryan, if ever I do say something as silly as "Labor must be better than the LNP because I'm an old anti-semite" I do hope you will 'call me' on it. But please don't invent words I (haven't) used, put them in inverted commas as though it's an exact quotation, then tell us all you're going to 'call me' on it. The end result is simply that you look silly to any fair-minded person who can read.
That'll do me for now. Have a nice day.
Syd, old tigger, youse is doing it again. I criticise the ALP, and specifically Rudd (our PM). You broaden it out to include everyone equally and then - citing only your own naive optimism - express the wish that "a lot of these folk" have got a better education since. Touching.
Meantime Rudd has committed an extra $100 billion or so on weapons procurement, and locked Australia into extensive war-fighting with the USA.
I prefer the Murdoch press analysis to yours. In the front page story of the Australian today Mathew Franklin reports about Labor's re-election plans "The Prime Minister will also campaign on his plans to lift defence spending and work with the US on fighting terrorism".
With unthinking allies like you Syd, he's likely to get away with it.
The fact that you prefer the Murdoch media's analysis to mine has been clear for some considerable time, Bryan.
I don't think I'm going to get into dialogue with you, not today. You're way too loose with ofrensive insults, which in my case you've doled out in unrestrained fashion for several years.
You call me an "unthinking ally". I don;t think of you as much of an ally. Allies don't crap all over someone's reputation in public without apology or retraction. Allies defend people when their voice is excluded (remember the feeble-minded 'WebDiary'?). Allies don't 'call you out', then not bother to reply to a detailed response, then repeat similar insults somewhere else.
If that's how you treat your allies, Bryan, God help them. And heaven help your level of comprehension if you think I'm a fan of Kevin Rudd. I've been a public critic of Labor's military bloat for quite a while. See Military Bloat, ONLP & Jim Turnour
For God's sake - will you two just get a room and leave the rest of us out of it.
I couldn't agree more Joe. Bryan, you have my email address. Use it, if you really want to discuss issues directly with me. Let's give these people a break.
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